What did I do to be so black and blue?

Skin whiteners have always fascinated me because I grew up in a culture, in a country, where the skin complexion was categorized in so many ways, like:

Coal black
Dark
Dark brown
Brown
Light brown
Wheatish
Fair
Very fair
And, yes, even white!

Of course, in the matrimonial ads (yes, it is a thing, in case you didn't know) the skin complexion that is darker than light brown is rarely mentioned because, well, the preference is for lighter shades and advertising the darker shade does not do one a favor!

A graduate school friend, who was from Nigeria, used to joke that there isn't any black--it is all only various shades of brown.  A white American grad school colleague noted that there is no white skin and once held a blank sheet of white paper against his skin to prove his point.

Anyway, back to the skin whiteners. In the old country, "Fair & Lovely" was a product that was the brand back when I was young.  The manufacturer successfully brainwashed the public and continued to sell the product despite growing criticism.

Fair and Lovely is India's largest selling skin lightening cream, with 24bn rupees ($317m; £256m) in annual revenue.
Ever since the 1970s when it first hit the market, millions of tubes are bought every year by teenagers and young women in a country where lighter skin is routinely equated with beauty.
Top Bollywood actors and actresses have appeared in advertisements to endorse Fair and Lovely that promote fair skin as a means to a finding love or a glamorous job. 

And then George Floyd died.

What is the connection, you ask?

Black Lives Matter has now taken on the skin whiteners too.

As the Black Lives Matter movement prompts reckonings about race and skin color around the world, India's most popular skin-whitening cream is changing its name. Its manufacturer, Unilever, said Thursday that it's dropping the word "fair" from the Fair & Lovely brand name – and also eliminating any references to the cream's whitening or lightening affects.

I never ever imagined that such a day would arrive!

With up to 70% market share, Fair & Lovely has dominated the skin-lightening industry in India. Unilever's name change follows a similar announcement last week by Johnson & Johnson that it's discontinuing two of its skin-lightening product lines.

This change is fair and lovely!